Warner Pacific’s Matt Gregg on playing Gonzaga: ‘It’s something our guys will remember forever’

Bulldogs host the Knights in an exhibition matchup before officially tipping off the 2024-25 college basketball season

Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

The Gonzaga men’s basketball team is set to face arguably the toughest gauntlet of nonconference opponents it’s ever faced in the Mark Few era this upcoming season. 

Wednesday’s exhibition game against Warner Pacific, an NAIA school from Portland, Oregon, isn’t the kind of matchup against a top-25 team that the Bulldogs are likely to remember once their playing careers are over. But for the Knights, they’ll probably never forget the opportunity to play in one of the best environments college basketball has to offer.

“It's an experience for all involved,” said Warner Pacific athletic director Matt Gregg, who’s also the father of Gonzaga senior forward Ben Gregg. “And it's something that our guys will remember forever.”

Matt jokingly added that Gonzaga's players likely won’t reflect on Wednesday’s game in the same way, with the possible exception of his son Ben. Ben spent most of his youth on Warner Pacific’s campus while his dad tended to his duties as head coach of the Knights women’s basketball program, a role he served in for 15 years before stepping into his new position as athletic director. Matt also wore the assistant athletic director hat for a number of years and became quite familiar with the behind-the-scenes aspects of running an athletic department, and can now do it without the burdens of recruiting and traveling. 

Gonzaga Bulldogs forward Ben Gregg (33) during Kraziness in the Kennel at the McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane, WA, on Oct. 5, 2024. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

Wednesday won’t be Ben’s first time playing against some of the players from Warner Pacific’s roster; he’s familiarized himself with many of them from open gym runs. He and head coach Jamayne Potts have a relationship as well from Ben’s time around the program, which will likely make for some light-hearted trash talk between the two on the court Wednesday.

“Ben grew up in our gym, and he knows the coach,” Matt said. “He knows a few of the players because he played some open gym with them. I mean, he's been on that floor just as much as he's been on Gonzaga’s floor.”

While family and friend ties were certainly a bonus in scheduling an exhibition game, they were far from the only reasons behind putting together a friendly matchup between the Zags and Knights. When Matt was at the helm of the women’s program, he routinely looked for opportunities to play against some of the top competition the West Coast had to offer at the time, from the Courtney Vandersloot-led Zags to loaded Washington squads headlined by Kelsey Plum. While the final score isn’t easy to look at sometimes, the outcome isn’t supposed to overshadow the experiences that come with competing against some of the best student-athletes in some of the top venues in the country.

“I’ve done exhibitions my whole time when I was the women's coach, and I kind of started to turn [the men’s team] onto it as well,” Matt said. “I mean, it’s a good opportunity, it's a great experience. You're probably going to take a big fat L, but what an experience to play in front of The Kennel.”

Gonzaga Bulldogs forward Ben Gregg (33) takes a shot during the first half of their exhibition game at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif., Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. / Andy Abeyta/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Wednesday will be Potts’ second visit to the McCarthey Athletic Center. His first trip ended with Warner Pacific putting up 70 points in a loss to Gonzaga in an exhibition game back in November 2022. Needless to say, both rosters look drastically different since the two schools last saw each other.

The Knights (5-23, 3-19 Cascade Collegiate Conference) brought back five players from last season's squad that finished second-to-the-last in its league. Four of those were in the top six on the team in scoring. Junior guard Matt Solomon headlines the group of returners after he was an all-conference honorable mention at 18.6 points per game in 2023-24. The 6-foot-3 graduate student grabbed 4.7 rebounds, which was second most on the team, and had the third-most total assists with 57.

Bakersfield College transfer Terrin Dickey looks to be an impact payer from day one after putting up 18 points in Warner Pacific’s two exhibition games against Alaska-Anchorage this past weekend. The Albuquerque, New Mexico, native averaged nearly double-figures in scoring last season and pulled down 5.7 boards per game.

“They've got several new guys, and they're still trying to figure it out,” Matt said of the Knights. “They don't have a ton of size. They've got two guys that are 6-8, 6-9; not really true banger post players, you know, they're not like Graham [Ike]. But they're long, and then they run the floor pretty well. 

And then they've got a kid named Sean Johnson, who is a really solid shooter, always in the gym working … he's going to shoot a lot of 3s as well, probably. So I think they're going to live and die off the 3 a little bit. It'll be interesting.”

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